


I Wear My Heart On Your Sleeve

by jacobperalta



Category: Glee
Genre: F/F, Fluff, They're gay idiots, football rachel berry, letterman jackets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:53:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24721138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jacobperalta/pseuds/jacobperalta
Summary: Four experiences Quinn Fabray has with Rachel's letterman jacket.
Relationships: Rachel Berry/Quinn Fabray
Comments: 8
Kudos: 223





	I Wear My Heart On Your Sleeve

**Author's Note:**

> This one-shot is all thanks to my curious cat anon who sent me an ask talking about Quinn wanting to put football Rachel's letterman jacket and being embarrassed about it and I instantly wanted to write it so thanks to you, whoever you are! If you follow me on twitter and have read my social media aus, I hope you catch the references I make to my football rachel smau ;)
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or any of the characters in this story.

**I.**

The first time Quinn sees it, she stops walking abruptly and it takes Sam 5 seconds to notice Quinn is not walking next to him anymore. He looks at her and walks back to her side with a confused expression.

“You good?”

She stays frozen in place, eyes fixed on the thing that made her stop in the first place and it’s like her brain can’t comprehend it. Rachel is at her locker, casually chatting with Finn but that’s not the thing that made Quinn stop in her track. It’s the fact that the two of them are matching jackets-- letterman jackets, to be precise. The letterman jackets that the football players wear. She feels her heartbeat pick up as she looks at the slightly too big jacket on the small teenager and she’s surprised by the emotions it makes her feel. She finally realizes her mouth is wide open so she closes it and looks back at Sam.

“Rachel” is all she says. 

Sam’s eyebrows furrow. “Yeah, Q... she goes to our school. How crazy is that?”

She hits him in the shoulder with a scoff, nodding at the two people at Rachel’s locker. “Shut up idiot. Look at them, don’t you notice something’s different?”

“Quinn…” he says in a sigh, “You have to get over this petty feud. They said they were over for good, they’re just friends now and--”

“No!” she cuts him off quickly because he’s so wrong right now, this is not about the weird love triangle they’ve been involved in for the last three years. “She’s wearing a letterman jacket. Why is she wearing a letterman jacket?” 

Sam looks at her weirdly and then finally guides Quinn to her own locker where they were going in the first place because they’re just standing in the middle of the hallway right now and they’re getting odd looks.

“Because she’s in the football team?” he says as if it’s obvious, leaning against the lockers and her head turns to him fast.

“ _What?_ ” she shouts way too loud and it even stops some chatter around them, including Rachel and Finn’s conversation and Sam salutes everyone awkwardly. She doesn’t even look at the other students, she just hits her best friend on his shoulder so he turns his attention back to her. 

“Ow!” he says, rubbing his shoulder. “You’ve gotta stop doing that.”

“What the fuck do you mean she’s in the football team?”

“Quinn, I told you yesterday when we were playing Call of Duty online, remember?”

She frowns and tries to remember what he’s talking about. She vaguely remembers him mentioning something about Rachel and football but honestly she was way too focused on the game to really comprehend what he was saying. Besides Sam likes to blurt out bullshit to make her lose focus because he knows the only way he can have a shot at winning is when Quinn is distracted. 

“Why would you tell me something like that when we’re playing?” she says in a frown and looks back at Rachel. The letterman is slightly too big but it doesn’t look like she’s drowning in it like she would if she was wearing someone else’s jacket so it definitely means it’s hers. She fits the look a lot better than Quinn could have imagined she would and it makes Quinn’s stomach flip. She likes the way Rachel looks with her hands in her pockets and the red suits her. She swallows and reaches blindly inside her locker to grab her water bottle because her mouth is suddenly dry. She takes a sip out of it without taking her eyes off Rachel and the way she’s throwing her head back as she laughs at something Finn said.

“Quinn,” she hears from her right and she jumps, almost spilling water everywhere. She had completely forgotten Sam was right there. He’s looking at her with a knowing smile and she narrows her eyes.

“Shut up.”

He holds his hands up with a smirk, as if to say “I’m not saying anything” and then he winks at her and before she can stop him, he walks around Quinn to get closer to Rachel.

“Sham--”

“Hey Rachel. Hey Finn.” he says with a smile and Quinn groans internally.

“Hey Sam,” the two of them say at the same time and Rachel looks at Quinn behind Sam and smiles sweetly. “Hi Quinn.”

“Hey,” she says in a shaky voice and she clears her throat awkwardly. 

“Nice letterman.” Sam says with a boyish smile.

“Thank you!” Rachel says, looking at herself. “Coach just gave it to me, I’m really excited about it. It’s a bit too big on me but I don’t think it’s that bad, right?” she says happily and at the end of the sentence, she looks at the blonde girl and holds out her arm. Quinn reaches subconsciously to touch the material and blushes when she realizes what she’s doing. It’s as though she was expecting it to be a fake but no, it’s definitely real. Made of the same material as Sam’s or her own letterman jacket. 

“Yeah, it looks really good, Rachel.”

The smaller girl’s eyes widen in surprise like she wasn’t expecting the cheerleader to compliment her and she cracks the biggest grin Quinn has ever seen. It makes her heart flutter uncontrollably in her chest and her mouth dries up again. She’s not sure why the sight of Rachel Berry in a letterman jacket is making her feel like this and she fidgets awkwardly on her feet.

“Thank you, Quinn.” she manages to respond before the bell rings and the blondes watch Rachel grab the last of her things and the two football players walk to their class in the complete opposite direction that Quinn is going in. She finally tears her eyes away from them to look at Sam who’s chuckling lightly at her. She hits him on the shoulder again.

“Shut up.” 

**II.**

Turns out, Rachel being in the football team wasn’t one big prank that was created to confuse the shit out of Quinn; it was very real. The biggest shock though was that Rachel was good. Like, really good. She plays running back and she may be small but it just means she’s really fast and able to slip in between the players. 

Still, even if she is good, it doesn’t mean Quinn is not worried out of her mind at every game because the possibility of Rachel getting hurt scares her a lot more than she thought it would. On more than one occasion, Santana and/or Brittany have had to nudge her shoulder and remind her to continue the choreography because she got so lost in the game (which is something that never happened before-- she hates football so much usually which is pretty ironic, she’s aware). Everytime Rachel has the ball in her hands, her whole body tenses up and it’s worrying the number of times she’s had to refrain herself from running onto the field to help Rachel after she’s been tackled. She doesn’t know what to think of it because she’s felt that scared for Finn when she was dating him and she certainly doesn’t worry about Sam while he’s on the field either. It’s probably because she’s only 5’3 while everyone else would be considered giants next to her. Yeah, that’s it. 

It’s actually how they started getting closer. Quinn has become Rachel’s unofficial nurse since she knows first aid so after the first match where Rachel got hurt, Quinn was by her side in half a second and helped her out. Since then, it’s kind of automatic that Quinn takes care of Rachel’s injuries after the games which happens a tiny bit more than Quinn wished it did but at the same time, the blonde has started to cherish those moments in the locker room with only the two of them. Inevitably, it made them get a lot closer and Quinn would now consider the brunette a really good friend of hers. 

So because she’s now friends with Rachel and somehow the girl knows exactly what to do to make her do what she wants, she’s at one of the infamous party that Puck throws for the Titans and the Cheerios. She usually never goes, Sam’s been trying forever to get her to come with him but she doesn’t like parties and certainly not the ones that involve a bunch of drunk jocks. But for some reason, Rachel wanted to go and she only had to look at Quinn with puppy eyes for 3 seconds before the girl caved in. 

“Here,” a more than drunk Rachel says, handing her a glass of water because she’s the one driving Rachel and Sam home tonight and it really doesn’t bother her-- she only gets angry when she’s drunk and it’s not pretty to see. The smaller girl lets herself fall on the couch next to Quinn as the blonde takes a sip of her water. Rachel rests her chin on Quinn’s shoulder and the blonde tries to ignore how the fruity shampoo and the letterman jacket sleeve around her middle that Rachel is resting there (because a drunk Rachel means a cuddly Rachel) make her feel almost as if she's drunk too.

They’ve been at this party for way longer than anticipated and Sam is nowhere to be found and Quinn frankly only wants to go home. As if the angels have decided to bless her for once in her life, her best friend shows up out of nowhere in front of them.

“Yo! Let’s bounce.”

“Really?” she says, hopeful.

“Yeah,” he says nodding frantically which tells her he’s a little bit drunk too. “I just broke Puck’s ping pong table and I want to leave before he finds out.” 

“Okay let’s go.” Rachel agrees, standing up and she stumbles a little bit backward when she does and Quinn instinctively puts her hand on the small of her back. She keeps her hand there to help guide the brunette through the house and they’re almost out when Rachel spots Finn and she runs to him without a warning. Quinn sighs, ducking her head down. 

She just wants to go home.

She feels Sam’s arm around her shoulder and when she turns her head to look at him, they’re so close she can smell the alcohol on his breath. 

“How are you, Quinnie?”

She chuckles a little. “I’m good, Sham. Are you?”

“I’m so good, man. The game today was epic, right? Have you-- Did you see Rachel’s touchdown?” 

“Yeah, Sam. I saw Rachel’s touchdown. I cheer for you guys remember?”

He giggles drunkenly. “Oh right. You know-- A cheerleader goes really well with a football player.” She looks at him weirdly because they’ve tried dating last year and they definitely worked way better as friends so she’s not sure where he’s going with this and it frankly scares her a little bit. He must sense that because he shakes his head. “Not me, dummy. Just-- something to think about,” he splutters. 

“Okay, weirdo.” she says and looks back at Rachel and Finn. The boy is currently shaking Rachel’s shoulders slightly as if he’s giving her a pep talk and the girl is nodding seriously. After a while, she hugs him and he winks at her and instantly, Quinn feels anger in her stomach over the action. She doesn’t have time to dwell on it because Rachel heads back their way and they finally get out of the house. 

Sam climbs in the back seat and Rachel follows him because if she was in the passenger seat, there’d be no way for her to touch another human and Quinn chuckles watching them in the rearview mirror. She watches Rachel and Sam struggle buckling their seat belts for a good minute and finally they both get it at the same time and high five each other. 

“Are we good, kids?” she teases and they both nod enthusiastically. 

“Rachel.” Sam slurs trying to sound serious.

“Samuel.” Rachel replies as serious, reaching over to rest her hands on Quinn’s shoulders and the blonde almost swerves into the next lane in surprise. 

“Have you ever considered-- You should date a cheerleader.”

“What?” Quinn shouts loudly because she was _not_ expecting to hear those words come out of Sam’s mouth. Rachel doesn’t even seem surprised by that information and just moves her hands so she can grab Sam’s and she starts shaking them furiously. 

“Samuel, you are so right.”

Quinn glances in the mirror to see them looking at each other with big drunken smiles on their faces and the blonde girl rolls her eyes. This stupid conversation is making her stomach churn for some reason and she needs to put a stop to it before Sam says more weird shit. 

“Who wants to listen to some music?” she calls out and they both cheer instantly.

By the time they reach Rachel’s house after dropping Sam off, the diva is half-asleep on Quinn’s backseat. She chuckles and opens Rachel’s door, wrapping her arms around her waist to pull her out. 

“C’mon Rach.”

“Hm,” Rachel says with her eyes closed but getting up. She’s practically leaning her entire body on Quinn and the girl almost drops her but she manages to keep them standing up. “You’re strong,” she says with a giggle. 

“Right,” Quinn chuckles nervously. “Let’s get you inside, yeah? Thank god your dads aren’t home.”

It’s with great difficulty that she manages to get Rachel in her bedroom but when the brunette sees her bed, she jumps out of Quinn’s hold and lets herself fall on it.

“Sleep,” she mumbles. Quinn laughs a little and makes Rachel turn so she’s laying on her back.

“Rach, we gotta get you into your pjs.”

“Don’t care.”

“Rach.”

Rachel half opens her eyes. “I really like it when you call me Rach.”

Quinn’s heart skips a beat and she bites her lip to keep her from smiling too big. 

“Well I’ll call you Rach even more if you sit up for me right now.”

The brunette complies and Quinn moves slowly as she takes off the letterman jacket from Rachel’s shoulders. She gets a whiff of what the jacket smells like and she suddenly gets the urge to put it on to have that scent surround her completely. She keeps her face passive and shakes the thoughts of her head. 

When Rachel is finally under the covers, Quinn makes a move to leave but a hand on her wrist stops her. 

“Stay?” the diva asks in a small voice. “I don’t like to sleep alone.”

Quinn knows that it’s a bad idea. She knows that the butterflies in her stomach that appeared when Rachel said those words are the sign of something bad coming but she’s tired and she doesn’t have time to overthink about this so she nods and sits back down, brushing hair out of Rachel’s face.

“Sure.” 

**III.**

After that infamous sleepover, Quinn starts sleeping over at Rachel’s house a lot more often. It’s nice really because it’s pretty much the only time Quinn ever gets any sleep anymore.

Her parents fight. Like a lot. Pretty much every night, Russell comes back to late smelling like some other woman’s perfume and Judy is waiting for him in the living room after one too many glass of wine. On top of that, Quinn is barely sleeping because she’s studying for the midterms that are coming up. She has to ace them if she wants to make sure to get into the college she wants and hopefully move out of this hellhole next year. 

Her nights are spent studying way too late with music blasting in her ears or smothering a pillow over her ears so she doesn’t hear the insults her parents throw at each other.

It’s Friday after school and she really wishes Sue would let them go early for once in her life because she’s exhausted and all she wants is to go lay down in her bed before the chaos starts. Quinn runs in front of all the other cheerios, staring at the football practice that’s happening in the middle of the field right now. She catches Rachel’s eyes sometimes and the girl always smiles through her mouth guard and waves happily at her. In those moments, Quinn instantly forgets how tired she is and waves back energetically. 

Coach Beiste whistles loudly and all of the football players huddle up. He talks to them a little bit and then everyone gets in team of 3 and Quinn smiles a little when Rachel ends up in between Sam and Finn because even with the whole football uniform and the helmet, she still looks so tiny compared to them. It’s a simple exercise of one of the three trying to tackle one of them before they make a pass but Quinn is still impressed every time Rachel dodges Finn and throws the ball at Sam in time. 

Sue finally lets them go after too many more laps and Quinn walks to the locker room on wobbly legs. She ignores Santana and Brittany’s pointless chatter and takes the quickest shower known to man so she can go home. When she walks out of the locker room, she immediately bumps into someone and she stumbles backwards while the other person reaches for her to make sure she doesn’t fall.

“Oh Quinn, I’m so sorry!” 

Quinn’s head stops turning and she focuses on the person in front of her and a smile instantly spreads on her face when she sees Rachel in front of her. Her jersey is muddy and she’s holding her helmet under her arm, face red from sweating and Quinn’s breath catches in her throat

“Are you okay?” Rachel asks her teasingly, waving a hand in front of her face. 

“Yeah,” Quinn breathes, finally speaking up. “I’m just tired.”

“Your parents?” Rachel asks softly and Quinn only nods in response. She told Rachel about her parents fighting not too long ago, making her the second ever person she talked about with after Sam and it had surprisingly made her feel a lot better to talk about it. The football player takes a step towards her. “Tell you what, I’ll just take a shower later because you’re coming home with me.”

Quinn couldn’t even say no to that if she wanted to. She knows the girl would practically force her to come since she’s aware of the situation but also there’s no reason Quinn would want to say no because she loves being at Rachel’s house. She loves how kind her dads are, she likes how much life there is in that house and she’s pretty sure Rachel’s bed is the most comfortable bed in the whole world. 

That’s why 15 minutes later, Quinn is parking her car in front of Rachel’s lawn as the girl parks her car in the driveway. They enter the house together and instantly, Quinn gets hit with the scent of lasagna hits her. 

“Rachel, honey is that you?”

The diva puts her gym bag on the floor to undo the laces of her shoes. “Yeah, Quinn is there too!”

Quinn hears a light gasp and Hiram’s head appears as if to make sure he’s not being pranked. He lights up when he sees the blonde head and so does Quinn. She loves Rachel’s dads so much but for some reason, she bonded really easily with Hiram. Maybe it has to do with the love for literature that they both have in common or the fact that on one of Quinn’s first hang outs at Rachel's home, Quinn managed to beat Hiram at Scrabble when he’s usually the reigning champion. 

“Hi Quinn,” he says, walking towards her with his arms open. She chuckles a little and hugs him happily. “It’s been too long.”

“Daddy, Quinn came over two weeks ago.”

“Exactly,” he says pulling away and he puts his hands on her shoulders. “You can’t leave me alone too much with these two, they talk so much.”

Quinn lets out a laugh while Rachel rolls her eyes, standing on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek then joins her other dad in the kitchen. They make small talk with Rachel’s dads for a few minutes but then Rachel complains about being sweaty so they head upstairs. 

“I’ll be back in like 20, okay?” Rachel says, already starting to take off her shirt and Quinn glances away quickly like she’s not allowed to see that even though she’s seen Rachel changing in the locker room countless times. 

Quinn gets comfortable in Rachel’s bed and sighs happily when her legs finally get to rest. She grabs her phone, texting Sam back because when she doesn’t reply fast enough, he starts spamming her to annoy her. She hears the water running and Rachel’s light singing and it doesn’t take too long before her eyelids get heavy and she falls asleep in seconds.

She’s woken up because of a phone ringing and at first she thinks it’s Funny Girl by Barbra Streisand that is playing in her dreams but she soon remembers where she is and that ringtone obviously belongs to Rachel.

“Crap,” she hears someone whisper and then the ringtone abruptly cuts off. It’s obvious that Rachel tried to decline the call before Quinn woke up but the damage is done and she starts to stir. She stretches her legs and when she opens her eyes, she makes eye contact with Rachel who’s looking at her with a tender expression. Her hair still looks damp and the sun hasn't set yet so she probably didn’t sleep that much.

“Morning.” Quinn mumbles sleepily.

Rachel chuckles. “Hey you. I’m sorry I woke you up.” 

”It’s fine.” She goes to rub her eyes but she notices something is on top of her that wasn’t there before and her eyes widen slightly when she notices Rachel put her letterman jacket on her as a blanket. She’s beginning to have an idea on why that action makes her heart race but she’s not sure she’s ready to admit it to herself just yet. 

Rachel must see her expression because she smiles nervously. “Sorry, it’s just-- you looked cold and for some reason I couldn’t find any other blankets.”

Quinn smiles to ease her worry and she shakes her head, not bothering to move the jacket off her because it smells just like Rachel and Quinn loves it. 

“Don’t worry about it,” she says, moving to her side and tucking the jacket right under her nose. “Smells good. Sham doesn’t wash his enough I have to remind him to do it. He’s an idiot.”

Rachel chuckles and shifts so she can lay down, facing the blonde. “Are you saying I smell good, Fabray?” she teases and Quinn’s heart flutters.

“I’m saying you don’t smell like sweat,” she teases back and the diva lets out a melodic chuckle.

Rachel gets even closer to her, so close that she can almost feel her breath on her face. The brunette reaches and brushes some hair out of Quinn’s face and the moment is intimate, way too intimate for what the blonde was prepared for. They stare at each other in silence for what feels like forever and Quinn gets the silliest idea to close the distance between them and kiss her. Her heartbeat picks up at the thought and--

“Girls! Dinner’s ready!” 

**IIII.**

It’s been a week since Quinn first realized she _really_ wants to kiss Rachel Berry. It had shaken her a little more than anticipated and she had called Sam in the middle of two panic attacks and he had driven over to her house to help her out. 

After hours of just crying in her best friend’s shoulder, she had managed to accept that this was _okay_. There was nothing wrong with having a crush on another girl. After all practically all of Quinn’s close friends were on the LGBT spectrum so why should it should be a problem that Quinn might be gay? 

So a week later, she finds herself once again in Rachel’s room after sharing a practice and the diva is currently in the shower, singing the _Rent_ soundtrack. She has a bag of clothes this time because they’ve been planning for Quinn to spend the weekend here and the blonde is extremely nervous for it. Now that she’s aware she has the biggest crush on Rachel, she’s afraid of what she’ll do when the girl cuddles up next to her at night like she always does. 

**Quinnie:**

This was a bad idea. 

**Shammy:**

Quinn you gotta chill. This is just like your usual hangouts.

Except now you’re aware that you have a huge lesbian crush on her. 

**Quinnie:**

You’re not helping.  
  
**Shammy:**

Just kiss her lol

She sighs, putting her phone down because decisively her best friend is no help whatsoever right now. She looks around Rachel’s room to find something to focus on and her eyes instantly focus on Rachel’s letterman jacket that’s on the back of the desk chair. Quinn swallows and gets up subconsciously from the bed and walks over to it after making sure she can still hear the water running. 

It’s silly really, how fixated she is on this dumb jacket. She never thought anything of Finn’s letterman when she was dating him because it’s just a jacket. She wears hers often and so does Sam. It’s not a big deal. 

But she had never in a million years thought Rachel would ever wear it and the thing is, it suits her _really_ well. She hovers her fingers over the material and wonders if it would fit her. If it’s slightly too big on Rachel, it should fit her, right? Without overthinking it, she slips it on. 

It fits her like a glove. 

Quinn is suddenly surrounded by Rachel’s scent from everywhere and she feels the butterflies going crazy in her stomach. She turns to look at herself in the full length mirror and her heart skips a beat when she sees herself. The letterman jacket that the football players wear is slightly different from the Cheerio one but Quinn finds herself liking the different look it has. The fact that she knows it belongs to Rachel and not Finn or Sam for example also makes her shake a little because it’s as though that was Rachel’s claim over her. As if she’s Rachel’s and the thought of that sends shivers down her spine. 

In a flash, Rachel appears behind her and Quinn turns around in shock like a deer caught in headlights. The brunette is leaning against the doorway with her arms crossed and a small smirk on her face. Quinn’s face goes red in embarrassment from being caught like this. 

“You know you have one of your own too, right?” Rachel says playfully and it just fuels Quinn’s shame more. 

“Fuck-- This is so weird. I’m sorry--” she stammers, making a move to take the jacket off but Rachel takes a quick step towards her. 

“No, wait.” she says and Quinn freezes, her hands still in position to take off the letterman. Rachel walks over to her and silently fixes the jacket. When she’s done, she looks at Quinn from head to toe with a smile on the corner of her mouth. “It suits you,” the brunette says in a small voice. 

“What?” Quinn asks in a shaking voice because the way Rachel is looking at her right now is giving her some ideas she’s not sure she’s allowed to act on. 

“You’re so--” Rachel cuts herself off, taking a breath and looks at Quinn deep in the eyes. “You’re the prettiest girl I’ve ever met.”

The sincerity in the diva’s voice is what makes Quinn do it because there’s probably no other way to respond when your crush says something like that to you. She leans down and closes the distance between them in one quick move. Rachel immediately kisses back, wrapping her arms around her neck to bring her closer. Quinn cups her cheeks eagerly, taking Rachel’s bottom lip between her own. She knows no other kisses has ever made her feel as alive as feels right now. This is what it’s supposed to feel like; fireworks exploding, seeing stars behind her eyelids and feeling as though her heart is about to come out of her chest. 

Rachel tries to deepen the kiss but Quinn doesn’t have her years of breath control training so she eventually has to pull away for air. She keeps her eyes closed because for a second, she’s scared that when she’s going to open her eyes, she’ll realized this was all a dream. A hand cups her cheek and she opens her eyes and instantly meets chocolate-colored eyes. 

“I was wondering when you were going to finally do that,” Rachel breathes out and Quinn freezes for a second and then starts chuckling. Her chuckle turns into a full laughter and soon, the brunette joins her and they’re both laughing like idiots in the middle of her room. Quinn calms down first and pulls Rachel closer by the hips, the football player catches her breath and softens at the action. 

“I really like you,” Quinn breathes out.

“I really like you too.” Rachel confirms with a shy smile. She trails her fingers over the sleeve of her jacket. “ And I really like this on you.”

Quinn smirks. “Yeah, I’m thinking of keeping it. Is that okay with you?”

“More than,” Rachel says with stars in her eyes before pulling Quinn in for another kiss. She’s pretty sure this won’t be the last moment they share over Rachel’s infamous letterman jacket and she’s definitely okay with it. 

She wonders what Rachel would look like in the Cheerio’s jacket and she makes a mental note to try it out as soon as possible. 

After they’re done kissing, though.

**Author's Note:**

> Well there you go, I hope you enjoyed that! If you did, make sure to give it a kudos and leave a comment. 
> 
> Follow me on twitter: @chloebeaie


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